3134 Tasting Notes

Oh work tea (aka work brewing conditions)…. you are truly so terrible :( I almost don’t even want to drink this cup of tea because it’s just Not. Very. Good. And I know the tea is great.

I think I’m going to take the last of this bag to brew at home… and have my boyfriend take me to pick up 2 more thermoses at Costco. I’m so spoiled by tea at home, it’s just gross here now :( I’d rather brew 5 thermos-fuls of tea in the morning and nurse them through the day instead of attempting to make tea here. Blech. :(

Yes – my mom and I picked up a 2-pack of the Contigos for Christmas, and I love mine. Well worth the price! I know Sil has about 4 in her house too, and they work awesomely. Keep the tea hot, and is the more important criterion for me, leakproof (not that I’ve tested it too much though, but it’s certainly better than the mug that spilled in my backpack before Christmas and soaked everything in Genmaicha…)

The mugs are pretty awesome. We do have 4 in our house, and i bring 2 in to work with me everyday. The keep the temperature pretty well and don’t leak. Mine don’t have a lock like Kittenna’s, but unless the button is being pressed, they don’t leak…and if they’re upright even pressing the button won’t necessarily = a leak.

Ahh, perfect. I have one, but I’ve dropped it a few times. I should go pick up another set! I find that as long as they don’t lay on their sides for too long, they’re good. Mine sometimes leaks if it’s just laying there, but it’s more of a dripping than a torrent of tea.

I feel like my thermos is a little contaminated today… probably because I decided yesterday that a full, thorough scrubbing of my travel mugs takes too much time to do daily, and so just rinsed it out… ah well! Not too bad, just tastes a bit… like banana… which wasn’t an ingredient in either of the possible teas in this thermos prior, so who knows…

Anyhow, 12 teas to go! And…. less than 12 hours. Yeah I don’t see this happening…

Yummers. As expected, this works great in a travel mug. Too bad my sense of taste is currently marred by the leftover fish I just ate for lunch (seasoned with onion powder, chili powder, etc. etc.), which is lingering rather badly, haha.

Preparation

Used up the last of this today plus a bit of Cashew Turtle (3:1, as I didn’t have enough of this one for my thermos). The resulting combination is unsurprisingly mostly CPC with maybe a hint of extra caramelly flavour. Tasty enough that it’s almost gone. (I used the “add a bit of cold water to the thermos” trick this morning, and was able to drink my tea at my 8:30am meeting after steeping it around 7:55! Score! Of course, the Laoshan Black to which I did not add cold water is still too hot to even attempt to drink…)

So anyhow, I have to drink 15 teas today in order to hit 1200 and make an average of 100 tasting notes/month since my Jan 29 2012 Steepster inauguration… mission accepted. (Can one die of tea overconsumption?!)

Preparation

Well, having three full thermoses (double cups, of course) doesn’t help, since that’s six cups of liquid and only 3 teas down! I’ll make normal-sized cups after this though… see how many I can get through while at work…

Yeah, my way of logging tasting notes has to do with a batch of leaves… so basically whatever volume of tea is made with one batch of leaves counts as one tasting note, which includes all re-steeps. I will valiantly attempt my goal but am pretty likely to fail, haha. After a while I just no longer want more tea… (and I have a bunch of unfinished cups sitting on my nighttable from last night which I usually drink before brewing more, if they still taste good).

Kittenna – i hear you…i do the same thing with my tasting notes. only makes me sad when i look at how many times i’ve logged something and i’m like i KNOW i’ve had way more than 10 cups of that! haha I managed to hit 900 tasting notes the other day but of course missed it.

Ehhhh…. definite ginger flavour, mixed with…. weirdness. As Raritea mentioned, it’s also a bit perfumey. Bleccch. Probably not a tea I will end up finishing :/ I don’t think I can make this better. For someone who loves ginger, this one could be ok, or perhaps be mixed with another tea, but…. it’s not for me!

Strong maple flavour backed by a fairly decent rooibos base. I’d like to know how this compares to DavidsTea’s Oh Canada, but I’m out of that one, so will just have to say that it’s pretty good, and pretty sweet, but probably not a tea I’ll crave often! I should, however, mix the last of it with a lapsang souchong just for kicks…

Yum. There’s something in the aroma of this one that I’m not keen on, but it’s much smoother, sweeter, and tastier on the sip. Kind of apricotty, probably a little like brandy (no idea on that one) and generally pretty tasty :D

So, this morning I decided I was tired of my usual rotation, and decided to quickly venture into a couple additional boxes to see if anything else might do well in a travel mug. I decided to give this one a shot, and to my delight, it worked quite well! I think this one will now be sipped down in short order. I just need to remember to use a Finum basket to minimize any particles getting into my brewed tea, so it doesn’t become bitter as it sits (it was great today, but more than one tea has been ruined like that before).

Re-steep unfortunately is bitter and oversteeped, but I don’t always have the best of luck re-steeping my teas from the morning anyhow.

Preparation

Ahhhh, delicious. Can’t wait to try the new extra super awesome premium special version (which is en route!), but choked about USPS rate increases. :’( Watch everyone in Ontario band together for a $500 order just to make shipping worthwhile…

So I went for my first run today (on the treadmill, it is nasty outside! Also January.) in a few months, and owwwwww my feet are killing me and I’m pretty sure I’m going to be wicked sore tomorrow. Bleh. Also, I want to sleep right now… (perhaps not such a bad idea…. except that I still need to drink like 50 million teas before my Steepster-versary tomorrow!)

Preparation

Profile

Bio

I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.